Tennis VC Review

Double fault.

Maybe it's for comparison's sake. To demonstrate the difference between the old and the new. Traditional button control vs. motion-sensing Wiimote &#Array; maybe that's why NES Tennis is here.

Trying to find the reason is tough. It's hard to justify paying five bucks to download Tennis on the Virtual Console when everyone buying a new Wii gets the much more advanced Wii Sports Tennis packed in the box for free. NES Tennis has some old-school flare, sure. But it's hardly a classic.

Tennis was one of 18 games to launch alongside the NES in October of 1985. Back then, it was spectacular &#Array; one of the most fully featured, colorful and accurate video game representations of tennis ever made. It got all the rules right. It had the scoring system down. It even had some strategy in its execution, with placement on the court and the button used to swing your racquet striking a delicate balance that made playing each round fun.

Maybe that's why it's here &#Array; for fun. Wii Sports Tennis is certainly fun, and new, and original. But NES Tennis is more robust than the new-age freebie. Here you can have either singles or doubles matches, and can actually move your character. (Movement is automatic in the Wii game.)

And there's another little touch found here &#Array; a cameo by Mario. Nintendo's main mascot sits in the umpire's chair on the sidelines, calling the shots and pointing out faults. He'd later continue his work as an officiator in games like Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! &#Array; but this was his first turn as a ref.

Maybe those things are the draw, and the reason this game's been revisited a few times recently &#Array; since its '85 debut, Tennis has made a couple of comebacks. It was a findable and playable item in the GameCube's communication game, Animal Crossing. And it came to the GBA in e-Card form, with Tennis-e. But really, those releases just serve to lessen the impact of this one &#Array; there's a good chance you've played this game before, even if it wasn't on an NES cartridge.

The Verdict

So what's the appeal of NES Tennis? An obscure Mario appearance and more options in the gameplay itself? It's hard to say, and it's that overall sense of confusion that characterizes this VC release. Nintendo has better tennis games to bring to the Virtual Console in the future &#Array; the N64's Mario Tennis, for example. So unless you're going for a complete Virtual Console collection, let this trip out to the courts stay in the past. Better to get your swing on with the fresh, and free, Wii Sports version.